Chicago police return fire as looters hit Mag Mile, smashing windows and confronting officers

[mucifer]

Source: Chicago Tribune

Hundreds of people swept through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores, confronting police and at one point exchanging gunfire with officers, authorities said.

The shots were fired at Michigan Avenue and Lake Street around 4:30 a.m., nearly five hours into the widespread vandalism. Officers were not hit and returned fire, according to the department, which said it was not known if anyone else was hit.

Earlier, an officer was seen slumped against a building by Grand and Wabash avenues as other other cops tended to him. It was unclear what had happened to him. Down the block, police in camouflage gear and shields briefly stood outside at a shop at Rush Street and Grand Avenue.

The looting began shortly after midnight as people darted through broken store windows and doors along Michigan Avenue carrying shopping bags full of merchandise. Cars dropped off more people as the crowd grew. At least one U-Haul van was seen pulling up.

Read more: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-downtown-looting-20200810-3zwa3b7zzrc5vdyb4qjqywrjvu-story.html

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my city

[Srkdqltr]

1. Looters are fair game.

[greenman3610]

2. This needs a strong, immediate response

[Botany]

3. When and if these thugs get shot and/or arrested then I am good with that.

This is not about Black Lives Matter but just about being a criminal.

[people]

23. These thugs . . .

Do you know that the looters were purporting to be about Black Lives Matter? Do you even know if any of these looters were black?

[EX500rider]

24. They appear to be black in the pics I have seen:

?ve=1&tl=1

[The Mouth]

31. Why the hell would it matter what race they are?

They are looters. Shoot them.

[Freethinker65]

4. Kid just texted from Nordstrom's in burbs.

He said word was looting at Michigan Ave store was pretty well organized and planned?? Seems like at least some of the looters got arrested. Will be interesting if can determine if the event was NOT spontaneous.

[mucifer]

6. It's not spontaneous when you bring Uhauls. This happened with the looting in May, too

It seems to be gangs

[Freethinker65]

7. +1

[brooklynite]

5. But, I was reliably informed that looting is merely an expression of economic inequality...

...at least that's what I read here.

[Freethinker65]

8. This was organized crime, not spontaneous.

[The Magistrate]

9. Probably Connected To This, Sir

From the above article, after the jump:



The officers, responding to reports of a young with a gun, spotted someone who fit the description near Moran Park in the 5700 block of South Racine Avenue around 2:30 p.m. He ran away and, while being chased by police, turned around and fired at them, authorities said. He was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center but his condition was not known.

More than an hour after the shooting, police and witnesses said a crowd of about 30 people faced off against officers holding a police line near 56th and Aberdeen streets. Aauthorities said someone fed false information to the angry group, including that police shot and wounded a child.

During a scuffle, one officer was hit with pepper spray and a second officer suffered a minor shoulder injury. Two people were arrested and a police car was shattered by a brick, police added.

A large number of officers cordoned off streets in nearly every direction until the mood of the crowd cooled off.

Assuming courteously the account is true, I would consider the shooting justified, but police are in somewhat the same position nowadays as the boy who cried wolf --- no one has any particular reason to believe them when shots are fired, and many are disposed not to on the basis of past performance. None of this justifies the looting, and there is no reason to believe this was anything but open thievery, with professionals operating under cover of a crowd. It could not have happened without the spark, however, and the spark could not have caught without a lot of fuel being prepared by police lying about provocations for their violence.

[Ace Rothstein]

13. Probably not connected at all when people are showing up with luggage and U-Hauls.

This was coordinated.

[The Magistrate]

14. That Does Not Take Long To Arrange, Sir

The shooting brought people out into the street. Dispersing a crowd often spreads the rumor which gathered it even further. There is always an opportunistic element lurking in wait for opportunity, and this is exactly the sort of situation which gives that scope. It is risible to think a crowd just materialized at random, like some quantum event, to raid the downtown district, and it is similarly risible to imagine something like this was organized in advance and let loose like a military operation. Tempers were high, and some people saw their opportunities and they took 'em. This is not too dissimilar from what happened back in May, and follows the same formula --- an angry crowd, with a criminal element operating under cover of its mass.

[yaesu]

10. The real looters are in the white house, breaking laws with impunity as the republiCon party gives

them the green light.

[Baclava]

11. Look at all those looter cars lined up! Cameras everywhere, track them down, arrest them all

Looting, Overnight Across Downtown Chicago; The Loop Shut Down

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/08/10/live-updates-looting-unrest-overnight-across-downtown-chicago-the-loop-shut-down/

[Bengus81]

12. Yep...ZERO to do with real protests about real issues. These are organized thugs...........

[colorado_ufo]

15. Looting should never be a part of "real protests."

Looting is theft, plain and simple. I'm sure they aren't stealing bread to feed their children.

All these jerks are doing is making everything worse. They are just looking for an excuse to cover what they are doing. Using slavery or anything else is just a justification for theft.

[stillcool]

27. using slavery as a justification for theft?

that's an interesting way to put things. "Real Protests", is also interesting. I think looting and rioting go hand and hand with the complete destruction of a society, and the inability to enact a damn bit of change.... As in those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. Perhaps the white supremacists who are always a part of instigating violence are stealing bread to feed their children. Or are they above all that?

[mountain grammy]

16. Whether it's the president and his cronies or protesters

looting is criminal behavior.

[Initech]

17. The country is going to shit right now.

[jalan48]

18. This is what Trump needs to help him get reelected.

[Thekaspervote]

19. And more than likely they are his goons!!

[jalan48]

22. I have the same thought. It happened in the 60's.

[EX500rider]

26. Somehow I doubt the black gangs in Chicago are big Trump fans. nt

[stillcool]

28. did you look at the videos?

[EX500rider]

29. Just this one:

[stillcool]

30. ah..just as an FYI...there are white people in those black gangs

[stopdiggin]

34. not a great many

and chances are pretty good those few are not Trump supporters and GOP operatives.
(the post you respond to has by far the better -- and more reasonable -- point)

" -doubt the black gangs in Chicago are big Trump fans."

[Dr. Strange]

35. If that's the case...

I hope the cops load them up with lead. This shit needs to stop.

[sarisataka]

20. What a difference a change in location makes

In Minneapolis the looting was dismissed or justified as righteous.
Chicago- shoot 'em.

[mucifer]

21. The looters are shooting at police. It's horrific. I don't have answers It's only going to get worse

when people run out of money with no jobs

[The Mouth]

33. Not by everyone on the left

only an infantile shit-flinging howler monkey could ever consider looting justified. However there was so much upset that it probably couldn't be quelled without a genuinely massive response.

Hopefully there is footage of the looters and the rioters and once the protests calm down those assholes can be found and given a few years of hard labor to think about it.

[sarisataka]

36. BLM Chicago thinks it is justified...

“I don’t care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats,” Ariel Atkins, a BLM organizer, said. “That makes sure that person has clothes.”

Black Lives Matter Chicago organized the rally after overnight unrest throughout the city, with police saying that more than 100 individuals were taken into custody for a variety of offenses, including looting.

“That is reparations,” Atkins said. “Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.”

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/black-lives-matter-holds-rally-supporting-individuals-arrested-in-chicago-looting-monday/2320365/

[mahatmakanejeeves]

25. A damaging derecho is taking aim at Chicago with widespread wind gusts of 80 to 100 mph.

Last edited Mon Aug 10, 2020, 04:30 PM - Edit history (1)

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but derechos are bad news. One came through the DC area a few years back. We still remember it.

A damaging derecho is taking aim at Chicago with widespread wind gusts of 80 to 100 mph. NWS has issued a rare "particularly dangerous situation" severe tstorm watch. Details:

Link to tweet

NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio KZZ-81

NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio station, KZZ-81 serves portions of northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana including the Chicago Metropolitan Area, from a 1000 Watt transmitter in Lockport, IL. The nominal effective range of the transmitter is about 40 miles.